Thank you for a brilliant year at KEEN!

Annual Review 2011 - 2012

What a year! Hello and welcome to this year’s KEEN An-nual Review! KEEN is a charity and a joint organisation of Oxford and Oxford Brookes Universities which provides sporting and recreational activities for young people with special needs in Oxfordshire. Our ‘athletes’ are guided by volunteer ‘coaches’ through four different weekly sessions together with a range of bonus activities, with the goals of developing skills, aiding socialisation, and having fun! After 22 Allsorts sessions, 21 Zig-Zag sessions, 21 KEEN Teens sessions, 24 GrEAT sessions, two Christmas parties, three ice-skating ses-sions, two swimming sessions, one treasure hunt, one golf session, one climbing session, one carol singing mission, one pantomime trip, one Philomusica visit, two daytrips, one KEEN Olympics, over 150 athletes and over 300 volunteers later – it’s time to take stock of the year. And what a year it’s been! Eve-ryone involved can feel extremely proud about the difference we have made to local children and young people with spe-cial needs and their families. In this annual review you’ll be able to read first-hand from KEEN volunteers about the fun we’ve had. But first, some sad news. Harry Todd, one of our athletes, passed away in January this year. Harry truly loved coming to KEEN and was still talking about KEEN until the day before he died. Harry's family have asked me to say how extraordinarily grateful they are to all the

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W H A T

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Y E A R

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D O N A T I

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A L L S O R T S

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G r E A T

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G Z A G

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K E E N T E E N S

08 S P E C I A L E V E N T S

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K E E N +

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C O - O R D I N A T O R

02 Design and editing by Rupert da Silva and Becky Turner

KEEN volun-teers who brought so much fun to his life. We will always r e m e m b e r Harry with much affec-tion and love, espe-cially when ice skating or doing the hokey cokey – a p a r t i c u l a r favourite of Harry’s!

Patrons: Archbishop Desmond Tutu and

Dame Fiona Caldicott

Carol Colinswood produced our annual ac-counts

Charlton’s Transport ferried us to Allsorts and back 16 times

Chris Major Captain of the Mansfield Hockey Team led at Allsorts

Christine Ireland ran a Makaton training session

Dhanjhals minibus services have ferried athletes to and from nearly 100 sessions

Falcon Rowing and Canoeing Club Oxford took us out on the river

Fusion Leisure staff were great at the sports cen-tre, swimming pool and the ice rink

My Life My Choice invited us to their amazing Stingray evenings

New College kindly allowed us their wonderful sports ground – again

Owls Galore! aka Rod Smallman provided a hoot of an owl session at GrEAT

Oxford Philomusica took us to outer space at the Funomusica

Oxford Playhouse had us rolling in the aisles at the pantomime

Oxford University Brass Band trumpeted at our carol singing

Oxford University Parks kindly allowed our treas-ure hunt to happen in their grounds

Rona Herrington processed the KEEN payroll free of charge

Santa was most generous with presents Special Effect, as ever, enlivened three of our sessions with their computer wizardry

The Oxford Fire Brigade made a surprise and friendly visit to the GrEAT campfire

The Oxford Rhythm Centre had us drumming to their beat at two KEEN Teen sessions

The St. Clement’s Family Centre have been, as ever, extremely understanding hosts

Ultrasounds acappella group led us in song at KEEN Teens

Wallingford Coaches transported us around the country most expertly

If you would like to donate to KEEN so we can continue our vital work you can: go to http://www.justgiving.com/

keen/ set up a direct debit or transfer

funds to: 40-52-40 / 00017531 make a cheque payable to ‘KEEN’

Donations and Contributions Funders Thank you to all KEEN’s funders over the last

year; without your contributions KEEN could not

exist. We would like to acknowledge:

Alfred Bevan Chapter of Freemasons; Apollo

University Lodge; Bishopsdown Trust; Brian

Murtagh Charitable Trust; Cannelle Beauty Sa-

lon, Oxford; Christ Church College; Elizabeth

Jane Foundation; Esmee Fairbairn Foundation;

Green Templeton College; Headington School;

Hertford College; Keith Rae Charitable Trust of

Balliol College; Abingdon Freemason Lodge;

Oxford City Council; Oxfordshire County Coun-

cil; PF Charitable Trust; South Oxford District

Council; SportsWorld, Abingdon; St. Catherine's

College; St. Hugh's College; St. Michael's and All

Saints Charities; The Queen’s College; The Wave

Card; The Woodward Charitable Trust; Trinity

College; University College; Vale of White Horse

District Council; Van Houten Fund of Oxford

University; Wadham College; Worcester College.

We are also most grateful for the significant funds donated in memory of Harry Todd, Iris Har-man and Winifred Ferne, and for the fundraising endeavours of Holly Edmundson, James Pope and Kate Burton (all marathon events) and HMP Grendon B wing who continue to raise money for KEEN via family days. Many thanks also to those who have helped in KEEN bake sales, and especially to the staff of the Oxford Disability Advisory Service who held their own sale with proceeds to KEEN. A number of individuals, including alumni, par-ents and even present coaches support KEEN through small donations and direct debit pay-ments, thank you all for your support.

Contributions Alternatives Ice Hockey Team helped us with our three ice-skating sessions

Balliol MCR football team GGGOOOAAALL!!! Staged a great Allsorts session

BB&O Golf Partnership took us KEEN golfing for the very first time

Brookes Circus Skills Society and fire-eaters put on two shows to remember at KEEN Teens

Brookes Climbing Wall allowed us to scale great heights

Brookes Dance Society helped us get our groove on at allsorts

Cannelle Beauty Salon, Oxford and Electric Hair helped us with an amazing KEEN Teens Fashion show

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Allsorts

plans and we had to cancel our first week. De-spite this false start, we came back with full speed starting off with some classics: football, parachute games and the ever popular KEEN rounders! As the term continued, we made the most of being outdoors with some great KEEN sports action that saw us dusting off our golfing gear, donning our tennis whites and even mounting our broomsticks for some Quidditch! Other highlights included a guest appearance from Balliol MCR football team, and embracing the added challenge of a strong wind while playing volleyball! A big thank you to Andy, Hannah, the two Jo's, Katy, Nathan and Rupert for all their hard work as session leaders this term and of course to all the volunteers who turned up, braved the weather and made a truly fantastic Trinity term of AllSorts possible! Callum Campbell, Sports Co-ordinator Trinity

We had a brilliant time at Allsorts across the first two terms, with a huge range of sports and games and some great memories for all in-volved. Saturday afternoons saw us taking over the Blackbird Leys Leisure Centre with a ton of exciting sports equipment and even more ex-cited athletes. We honed our talents at some classic sports including hockey, cricket, football, basketball and volleyball as well as enjoying some more adventurous activities like curling, cheerlead-ing, boccia, dodgeball and parachute games. Particular favourites for the athletes were vol-leyball with huge balloons and dancing led by the marvellous Brookes Dance Society. This year also saw the KEEN debut of quidditch, an in-triguing mix of sports that was simply magical. At the end of each term we had a special ses-sion. At Christmas we were lucky enough to be visited by Father Christmas himself and our ath-letes lit up when they were each accompa-nied by the Christmas fairy to visit him and of course receive a present. Both at Christmas and Easter we had a bouncy castle session which was big hit, for athletes and volunteers alike! Easter also saw another much appreci-ated visit from the Brookes Dance Society and

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Allsorts, our Saturday afternoon sports session, has enjoyed another wonderful year. This year we’ve been able to have a go at a whole vari-ety of sports, including some which are brand new to KEEN and both athletes and coaches have developed new skills! This year Allsorts has had two fantastic sports co-ordinators whose hard work has made the sessions so much fun for everyone involved. Nathan Webster was sports co-ordinator during both Michaelmas and Hilary terms and Callum Campbell became sports co-ordinator for Trin-ity term. Here’s Nathan and Callum to tell you all about the fun we’ve been having this year:

the ever popular football, making for an exhaust-ing but hugely entertaining session for all. I have thoroughly enjoyed sports Co-ordinating this year, most of all being able to spend time with our incredible athletes and ever keen coaches, and seeing both develop across the year. Thank you to all of the coaches who make Allsorts possi-ble each week. Special thanks to the committed and creative session leaders; Callum, Paul, Katy, Hannah, Jo, Ed and Ian. Finally thanks to visiting session leaders: Brookes Dance Society and Chris, captain of Mansfield College Hockey Team. Nathan Webster, Sports Co-ordinator Michaelmas and Hilary

We were all geared up for a storming return to All-Sorts at our outdoor venue of New Col-lege Sports Ground, but the weather had other

GrEAT

We kicked off Michaelmas Term at GrEAT with an icebreaker party, which got everybody, new and old, chatting and learning lots about each other. Some were amazed just how many amongst our number had met Archbishop Desmond Tutu! After further bonding at the pub in week two, third week saw us flex our creative muscles at puppet-making night, producing loads of fantas-tic furry characters that were just perfect for a Muppet-esque karaoke chorus. Spooky goings-on befell us on Halloween, when some people

became mummies and we all heard a ghostly story. Apple bob-bing left a few of us a little damp, but it's hard to forget KEEN coordi-nator Chris’

We began summer term with a pub quiz at The Mitre which, falling on the day before St George's Day, included a specially themed round on England and its patron saint. We had a wonderful time celebrating May Day, making special flower baskets and Spring frogs, and dancing around the maypole! We made tasty pitta pizzas before following clues to find weird

ceilidh dancing by a true Scotsman! GrEAT celebrated Valentine's Day at the Stingray club night run by My Life My Choice. This was a fan-tastic evening of dancing and mingling with old friends as well as new faces. Excursions to Sting-ray have now become a must in the GrEAT term. Our evening of bowling was, as ever, en-joyed by all; competition was rife with strikes galore from many of the group. This was fol-lowed by an evening conducting fun science experiments. We made mini volcanoes and had all manner of things swirling, bubbling and popping everywhere! The theme for the end of term party was open to vote. Unsurprisingly, Heroes and Villains won by quite a distance. This featured guest appearances from Batman, the Incredibles and Cruella Deville! Music, smoke, lights, food and some good old party games ensured that the party was a GrEAT success and an enjoyable end to the term! Callum Campbell and Jo Nicholson, GrEAT Co-ordinators Hilary term 2012

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There have been five fantastic GrEAT co-ordinators this year who have kept the members of GrEAT, our over 18s social club entertained with a huge variety of fun activities.

GrEAT kicked 2012 off with the ever popular pub quiz. The music intro round was a particular fa-vourite this term. We then had an interesting fu-sion of Burns Night and Chinese New Year: some fantastic Chinese dragons were made, a pile of spring rolls were devoured alongside a whole haggis and, to top it all off, we were taught

seemingly-endless attempts and the resulting sopping wet hoodie! We hurtled towards the end of term with a film night, games evening (including video games courtesy of the amazing organisation Special Effect) and bowling trip. The year was topped off with a truly epic Christmas rave party: personalised rave shirts, fluorescent snowflakes, glowsticks, karaoke, disco lights and smoke machine - a fitting finale for an awesome action-packed term! Dan Warren, GrEAT Co-ordinator Michaelmas term 2011

and wonderful objects in the GrEAT scavenger

hunt. The following week we were joined by Rod

Smallman of 'Owls Galore' with ten owls from his

sanctuary, including a pair of month old chicks!

After a brilliant talk which had everyone en-

thralled, the athletes were able to hold the owls.

We also had fun making owl masks and paper-

plate owls! For the first time in the year we were

able to get outside for a BBQ and games. We

rounded up the term with three brilliant evenings

out; first to GrEAT bowling, a super night of

closely fought competition; then Stingray Night-

club, for lots and lots of hoppin' and boppin';

and finally to The University Club, for a sophisti-

cated black tie evening, complete with

games, canapés, and of course, more funky

dance moves! Chris Watkin and Holly Edmund-

son, GrEAT Co-ordinators Trinity term 2012

and experienced first-hand the difficul-ties of constructing both a Roman road and Hadrian’s Wall. Next we became Vikings with excellent pillaging skills, and managed to build a boat with a beauti-fully decorated, functional sail. In the Middle-Ages we narrowly escaped plague victims, fleeing to Italy where we met a forgetful Leonardo Da Vinci and helped him to name his famous portrait. The rest of the term promises to be just as exciting, as we continue our travels, and add to the sail of our ship! Jess Farmery, Zig-Zag Session Leader

Zig-Zag

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Zig-Zag, our drama workshop for under 18s, has had a bril-liant and very varied year. Several new athletes have joined us this year, along with many new volunteers. To-gether we’ve explored well-known nursery rhymes, tested our acting skills while looking at some of the most exciting action films, and become historians as we travelled back in time with our Horrible Histories theme in the final term. A huge thank you to all our session leaders, Alice, Becky, Dan, Ellie, Ian, Jess, John, Katy, Nathan, Paul and Robyn whose dedication and imagination has kept the Zig-Zag athletes entertained throughout the year. Here’s Becky and Jess to tell you about this year at Zig-Zag:

In Michaelmas term we entered the world of nursery rhymes. We helped Jack and Jill build a well and saw the dish run away with the spoon. We put Humpty Dumpty back together again and the Grand Old Duke of York taught us to be knights. Little Miss Muffet was scared away by Incy Wincy Spider. On Old MacDonald’s farm, we helped Baa Baa Blacksheep to deliver bags of wool before heading out to sea with The Owl and The Pussycat. Finally we joined Owl and Pussycat on their honeymoon as they visited all their nursery rhyme friends. In Hilary term we moved on to action films. We turned ourselves into superheroes before heading out to sea with Captain Jack Spar-row. Indiana Jones

“Very few other organisations provide this sort of

taught us to slither like snakes, and Gandalf enlisted our help in destroy-ing the ring. We escaped from a T-Rex in Jurassic Park, then received our Hogwarts letters and set out to defeat Voldemort. Finally we joined Jack Sparrow on a quest to the end of the world with a collection of ob-jects from all the films we had visited. Becky Turner, Zig-Zag Session Leader

During the Trinity term at Zig-Zag, we all took a trip back in time thanks to our ‘Horrible Histories’ theme. First, we found ourselves in the 1st Cen-tury, where athletes enjoyed learning how to fight like a Roman,

We've had a very exciting time at KEEN teens this year and its been great to see some athletes move up from Zig Zag to our teenage social club. As well as rolling out some of our classic sessions including cooking, bowling and film night we've tried to think outside the box. Some of the guests we've invited to spice up Friday evening have included the Oxford Brookes Circus Skills Society, African drummers from The Oxford Rhythm Centre and The Ultrasounds - an all male/all medic acappella group. KEEN science also came back with a bang, lots of bubbles and exploding volcanoes. My highlight of the year was definitely our murder mystery evening where

KEEN volun-teer Callum put on a s t e r l i n g

performance as Sherlock Holmes. We interviewed sus-pects and dusted for fingerprints in order to track down the villain amongst us. Katy Boncey, KEEN Teens Session Leader At KEEN Teens this year we’ve kept all the old favourite sessions and tried to introduce some new sessions too. As always, a visit from Special Effects was a very popular evening with everyone enjoying the range of computer games they bought with them, film nights are always enjoyed by everyone and the end of term parties con-tinue to be a hit. Cooking sessions have given us the chance to cook everything from nachos to shortbread and given everyone a chance to try their hand at mak-ing their own non-alcoholic cocktails. New sessions have included a very successful murder mystery evening, and a fashion show with everyone having their make-up and nails done by Cannelle Beauty and their hair styled by Electric Hair before taking to the catwalk to show off their own t-shirt designs. On top of all this we’ve also had a few changes of venue, with a bowling night in March and a session outdoors in South Parks in May. It’s defi-nitely been a busy and exciting year for KEEN Teens and both coaches and athletes have had a lot of fun trying so many new things and getting another chance to join in some of their favourite sessions from last year. Becky Turner, KEEN Teens Session Leader

Becky, sister of KEEN athlete environment, which is what makes KEEN so special”

KEEN Teens

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KEEN Teens, our social club for teenagers, has had another fantastic year. Still our newest session, KEEN Teens is now in its third year and has seen lots of new athletes and volunteers this year all joining in a year packed full of fun activities and events. Thanks to our team of session leaders, Andy, Becky, Callum, Damien, Dan, Han-nah, Kate, Katy, Nathan and Rupert for all the help and enthusiasm. Here’s Katy and Becky to tell you about some of the high-lights of this year of KEEN Teens:

“Very few other organisations provide this sort of

Special Events

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Alongside our regular activities we’ve also been able to run a number of special events this year. These have included three ice skating trips, two daytrips, and a variety of KEEN+ holiday activi-ties:

Daytrip to Birmingham Sea Life Centre and Think Tank, March 2012 In March we took a group of 52 athletes and 52 volunteers on a daytrip to Birmingham where we visited both the Sea Life Centre and the Think Tank. With so many different things to see and do everyone involved was very excited and the day lived up to expectations and was enjoyed by both athletes and volunteers alike! Here’s Han-nah, one of the group leaders on the trip, and Aoife, one of the volunteers to tell you about the day:

This year I was the leader of the Pterodactyls who all had an amazing time. At the Sealife Centre we saw many wonders of the sea including 'Nemo' and 'Dory', and watched a 4D

KEEN Olympics, June 2011 The end of year finale, the KEEN Olympics, is always a highlight of the KEEN year and 2010/11 was no exception. We had four fun sports ses-sions which gave everyone a chance to show off their sporting skills before we all tackled the giant obstacle course with lots of enthusiasm. Afterwards we just had enough time and en-ergy left to finish the afternoon with a medal ceremony, where the mayor of Oxford pre-sented all the athletes with medals for their achievements throughout the KEEN year.

Ice Skating, termly during 2011-12 The first Friday of every term has seen KEEN visit the ice rink to try out our ice skating skills. Both athletes and coaches have displayed some impressive skating skills this year, but we’ve also made good use of the penguins and sleds! Here’s Rupert to tell you a little more about it:

Ice skating has been great fun this year as al-ways, with athletes and coaches alike having the chance to improve their technique on the ice. This year, the sledges have been particu-larly popular, with many athletes enjoying weaving bobsled runs around the ice pulled by willing coaches. We were fortunate throughout the year to have the expert assistance of mem-bers of the universities men’s and women’s ice hockey teams and the Oxford Alternatives Ice Hockey Club, who were able to support both athletes and coaches when needed!

Rupert da Silva, Coach

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tired, but we still had enough energy for a sing-song on the way back. Aoife Duff, Coach

A massive thank you to Oxfordshire County Council Short Breaks Scheme for the funding that

enabled us to run the trip!

Treasure Hunt, May 2012

On 26th May KEEN headed out to the University Parks in the glorious sunshine for the annual treas-ure hunt. This year’s theme was The Lion King, and the hot sunshine seemed appropriate to the theme as all the athletes and volunteers became Simba for the day. Mufasa introduced us to the Pride Lands and the athletes set out to learn the skills they would need to one day be King. Rafiki was on hand to teach us all about the Circle of Life, Timon and Pumba taught us the importance of Hakuna Matata as we foraged for supplies and Mufasa put us through our paces in an obstacle course. And all of this while fending off Scar who was determined to steal the title of King for him-self. Finally the athletes managed to defeat Scar with the help of some wet sponges before cele-brating our victory and the safety of the Pride Lands with a Hokey Cokey!

A massive thank you to the Parks Department for allowing us to use the University Parks for the day.

film. One of my highlights was walking through the glass tunnel walkway with a giant turtle under-neath and a hammerhead shark above! We took many photos of the colourful fish and even baby otters. Lunch was followed by ice-cream at Harry's request, giving us much needed energy to explore the ThinkTank. There was so much to choose from: four floors of interactive exhibitions and gadgets to play with and a Plane-tarium. During the show we learned more about the stars and planets and managed to cram in a quick tour of a recycling plant and then back on the bus home. Hannah Phillips, Group Leader

Bright and early on the 3rd March, 3 coaches packed with athletes and volunteers set out on an action-packed daytrip to Birmingham. Our first stop was the Sea Life Centre where we saw turtles, jellyfish, fish of all shapes and sizes, and even a couple of sharks! Everyone got rather lost in a be-fuddling Hall of Mirrors, but luckily the athletes managed to guide us out in time for lunch. Our afternoon was spent in Birmingham’s fabulous Thinktank museum, where we explored an interac-tive recycling exhibit and watched a robot playing the drums! Last but certainly not least, we paid a visit to the Thinktank’s Planetarium for a whistle-stop tour through space and time, featuring a very catchy song about constellations. By the time we were back on the coach everyone was pretty

KEEN+

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December 2011 and January 2012 As term came to an end in December we ar-ranged some KEEN+ activities to keep us occu-pied in the run up to Christmas. First we headed out to the Cornmarket where the Ox-ford University Brass Band helped us to spread the Christmas spirit to everyone in Oxford with some carol singing. Just a few days later we headed to the Oxford Brookes climbing wall to warm ourselves up with an energetic climbing session.

GrEAT Daytrip, June 2012 During the bank holiday in June, GrEAT headed out on a daytrip to London. 19 GrEAT members boarded the coach to London ready to cele-brate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. There was plenty of flag waving and singing as we headed for the Battersea Park Diamond Jubilee Festival. Everyone was very excited by the num-ber of different things to do and see at the festi-val and everything from the music to the crafts lived up to our expectations. Here’s Jo to tell you more about the day: GrEAT celebrated the Queens Diamond Jubilee with a trip to Battersea Park Festival to see the flotilla. Everyone was in a right Royal mood, with flags waving and even the odd Union Jack hat being donned to passers by. The weather held off and we were all able to enjoy a day filled with music, dancing and arts and crafts. Some of us had photos with celebrities passing by, others enjoyed the merry-go-round so much they spent most of the day on it and some just simply wanted to find chips. Either way every-one thoroughly enjoyed themselves and al-though it was a very tired bus on the way home we still managed an energetic sing-a-long topped off with a rousing chorus of God Save the Queen. Jo Nicholson, Coach

After Christmas we prepared ourselves for the new term with a swimming session at the Ferry Sports Centre, complete with giant inflatables and a lot of splashing. To hold on to some of the magic of Christmas we also took a group of athletes to the Oxford Playhouse to see their pantomime, Mother Goose. Here’s Damien to tell you a little more about our climbing session. The climbing trip took place at Oxford Brookes’ climbing wall, which has both a supported and unsupported walls which everyone enjoyed thoroughly.

Keeping the water theme, we then headed to Ferry Sports Centre again for another fun filled swimming session to go swimming. The following day a lucky group of athletes were taken to Waterstock Golf Course where the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Golf Part-nership ran a very special golf taster session. Finally, we managed to find time to fit in a trip to the Ox-ford Philomusica’s family concert and a trip to Ab-ingdon to see Blue Apple Theatre’s production of Hamlet. Here’s Jo and Kate to tell you about just some of the things we got up to:

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The weather was great on both days, first for the coach training session; think the coaches dis-covered they got muscles that didn't know ex-isted but learnt how to control an open canoe and I was pottering about in a kayak. Second session was with some of the excited athletes from GrEAT; we got our buoyancy aids on, had a game of duck duck goose, got paired up, got the boats on the water and headed to the Cherwell and back to base. Everyone had fun and a good workout for all the coaches. I was paired up with a cheeky athlete who decided to keep splashing me so got a bit wet. Thanks to the people at Falcon Canoe Club for helping out and sharing the fun. Jo Knowles, Coach In April we donned our spacesuits to blast off in the rocket known as the Town Hall with the Ox-ford Philomusica. The afternoon began with some crucial intergalactic training, involving everything from naming our own stars to creat-ing space-themed instruments. We then took off on a journey taking us from Star Wars to Star Trek, with a quick visit from Dr Who, and A Little Night Music. As always, a fantastic time was had by everyone and we are all looking forward to the next concert. Kate Dickie, Coach

March and April 2012 In the Easter break, KEEN stayed very busy with a whole range of KEEN+ activities on offer. GrEAT kicked off the KEEN+ activities with another trip to the popular Stingray club night. A few weeks later a group of GrEAT members headed out to go ca-noeing with the Falcon Rowing and Canoeing Club.

The sense of pride and enjoyment that came from conquering the wall and abseiling back down was most astonishing. It was a most memorable day packed with fun and excitement which I would love to see repeated in the future! Damien Bradbury, Coach

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They say time flies when you’re having fun. This is magnificently true of the KEEN co-ordinator’s year! Starting with the fun: this year, on a weekly basis, and as part of my job, I’ve sung songs, climbed walls, been on giant inflatable obstacle courses, dressed up, played sports, travelled, been bowling, had camp-fires, captured flags, escaped dinosaurs and landed on the moon. So, of course, have all the KEEN athletes and volunteers. And it certainly all goes by in the blink of an eye. The sessions count down rapidly and at the time of writing, I am sadly shak-ing my head and wondering where they all went. But there have also been KEEN moments when time moved rather slowly and quite magically: the unexpected joy brought by manufac-turing and trialling a string-and-cup telephone; an especially enthusiastically played parachute game; or the exhilaration of taking athletes golfing for the first time and watching them love something new. There’s also the slow burn of watching athletes develop, and observing the relationships between them and the coaches blossom. Whether fast or slow, this KEEN year has, I hope, been full of fun and development. What a privilege it has been to work for such an incredible organisation.

I have a lot of thank-yous. First to all our athletes, for the fun and inspiration you have all brought to the organisation and to me personally. To KEEN parents, who have been wonderfully supportive, and to the KEEN trustees, for their essential hard work behind-the-scenes. Most of all, my profound thanks to the KEEN coaches. By leading sports, by coming (and singing) on day-trips, by donning ridiculous costumes, by being covered in face-paint, by test-flying owls, by engaging with KEEN athletes and offering them undivided attention and friendship - the coaches make KEEN what it is. KEEN was founded back in 1988 on the basis of volunteers selflessly putting others first and offer-ing their time, energy and talents and that’s no less true today. This year, the excellence of KEEN volunteers has not only pow-ered some wonderful sessions, it has also been essential to my attempts to live up to a very challenging job. I absolutely could not have done it without you, so to each and every volunteer, to all session leaders, to the KEEN Volunteers Committee, and especially to Becky Turner, Callum Campbell, Dan Warren, Hannah Phillips, Jo Nicholson, Kate Dickie, Katy Boncey, Na-than Webster, Paul Harding and Rupert da Silva – thank you.

Time for the big announcement: the next KEEN Co-ordinator will be Nathan Webster! Anyone remotely involved in KEEN will be immediately and rightly delighted by this news. Nathan is a hugely impressive individual who simply lives, eats and breathes KEEN and has done for two entire years. It’s been quite a struggle to make him stay away for a couple of weeks to take his exams! Nathan is organised, caring and fun and I know KEEN is going to have a remarkable year with him at the helm. I’m extremely sad that I won’t be around much to wit-ness it, but I shall try to make at least one or two flying visits – KEEN runs very deep and is not something you can give up easily, if at all.

All the best for the future,

(That’s the end – do do, do do d do)

Chris Jones

KEEN Co-ordinator 2011-12

From the Co-ordinator

16-17 Turl Street, Oxford, OX1 3DH 01865 264173, 07847 110371

keen@keenoxford.org, www.keenoxford.org